Honoring the legacy of Jeffrey Schmalz

Fabienne Fleurantin/Contributing Writer

 

Photos by Fabienne Fleurantin

Captivated by the story of a man who was dedicated to informing the world of an important cause, Samuel G. Freedman and Kerry Donahue set out on a journey to tell the incredible story of journalist, Jeffrey Schmalz. AIDS may have taken Schmalz in the end, but with his death, came the birth of a new journalism. The way reporting would be displayed to the public and mainstream media was changed forever.

“Dying Words: The AIDS Reporting of Jeff Schmalz And How It Transformed The New York Times,” started out as a passion project. Freedman’s sole intention was to keep Schmalz’s work alive. Freedman struggled with finding a medium through which he would be able to deliver Schmalz’s life to a larger audience. However, with the help of radio documentarian, Kerry Donahue, this dream became a reality.

Together, they interviewed those who knew Schmalz, both behind closed doors and in the public eye. They documented the memories of the interviewees and created the book and radio piece “Dying Words: The AIDS Reporting of Jeffrey Schmalz.”

Jeffrey Schmalz started out as a copyboy for The New York Times, but it wasn’t long before his determination got him the position of copy editor at the age of twenty. While we can observe that Schmalz had many successes, his coming up in the news industry wasn’t easy. Schmalz’s identity as a gay journalist conflicted with his work interest. In order to keep his career afloat, he had to hide.

Schmalz only came out to people who were his allies, as a false move in revealing his true identity had the power to destroy his career.

On Dec. 21, 1990, Schmalz collapsed in the newsroom of the New York Times and was rushed to the hospital. This was the moment he was diagnosed with AIDS. From that day forward, his life had changed forever. He felt it was his responsibility to report what was happening in the LGBTQA community – not only for his sake, but for theirs as well.

Although, it wasn’t an easy choice for him.

Freedman, during his presentation at FIU’s BBC campus, described how Schmalz struggled with straddling the line between wrong and right.

“Part of him was totally devoted to The New York Times values and rules the Times has of reporting without fear or failure. But being sick with AIDS – reporting on AIDS, he felt a tremendous pressure from activists…there was a tremendous sense of him having a tug of war internally with what he was supposed to do, and how he was supposed to function – as a neutral journalist, as an advocate or try to do some combination of both.”

Though Schmalz was torn by this dilemma, he made a change in his reporting by personally disclosing his story to those he interviewed. He gave them a sense of hope by showing them that he could function and pursue what he was passionate about and that they could as well. His articles had a human element to them, bringing the narratives he carried with him to life.

As Samuel Freedman and Kerry Donahue closed their presentation, they played a radio snippet of Jeffrey Schmalz in his final years, looking back on his life.

“Here’s your life. This is it. If you died tomorrow, would you be happy? I’m extremely happy in a certain way. I know that sounds ridiculous. Here I am, dying, yet my life, in a lot of ways, has never been happier; has never been more directive. I feel more content. I feel like this is where I should’ve been all along and I’m sorry that it took a fatal disease to do it – but, better late than never.”

The free audio documentary can be found on www.dyingwordsproject.com.  

 

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